The Requisite Legal Standard for Economic Assessments in EU Competition Cases Unravelled through the Economic Approach

Publishers Abstract:
It is currently unclear how the requisite legal standard should be interpreted for economic assessments in EU competition cases. This article clarifies how the economic approach can help unravel this issue. I propose an evidentiary framework for economic assessments in EU competition cases which is based on a welfare economics interpretation of EU competition law. The latter means that those rules must be interpreted in order to fulfil their objective, that is the maximisation of consumer welfare. Accordingly, each evidentiary step will be functionally explained and defined in this article.

It is argued that the evidentiary framework must apply to all economic assessments, since the distinction between complex and noncomplex economic assessments is not compatible with the economic approach.